Proteome Profiling of PMJ2-R and Primary Peritoneal Macrophages

In vitro models are often used for studying macrophage functions, including the process of phagocytosis. The application of primary macrophages has limitations associated with the individual characteristics of animals, which can lead to insufficient standardization and higher variability of the obtained results. Immortalized cell lines do not have these disadvantages, but their responses to various signals can differ from those of the living organism. In the present study, a comparative proteomic analysis of immortalized PMJ2-R cell line and primary peritoneal macrophages isolated from C57BL/6 mice was performed. A total of 4005 proteins were identified, of which 797 were quantified. Obtained results indicate significant differences in the abundances of many proteins, including essential proteins associated with the process of phagocytosis, such as Elmo1, Gsn, Hspa8, Itgb1, Ncf2, Rac2, Rack1, Sirpa, Sod1, C3, and Msr1. These findings indicate that outcomes of studies utilizing PMJ2-R cells as a model of peritoneal macrophages should be carefully validated. All MS data are deposited in ProteomeXchange with the identifier PXD022133.     

An Integrated Floating-Electrode Electric Microgenerator

Microfabricated electric generators, scavenging ambient mechanical energy, are potential power sources for autonomous systems. Described presently are the design, modeling, and implementation of a single-wafer floating-electrode electric microgenerator, integrating a micromechanical resonator and a number of electronic devices. Forming a plate of a variable capacitor, the resonator is responsible for converting mechanical vibration to electricity. A sense transistor and a diode bridge are integrated, respectively, for monitoring the "charging" of the floating electrode and for rectification. A lumped electromechanical model of the generator is developed and expressed in terms of a set of nonlinear coupled state equations that are numerically solved. For small-amplitude excitation, a circuit based on a set of linearized equations is developed. The generator is realized using a compatible combination of standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) "floating gate" process and a post-CMOS photoresist molded electroplating process. Adequate agreement between model predictions and measurement results was obtained     

Chitosan–Oligo(silsesquioxane) Blend Membranes: Preparation, Morphology, and Diffusion Permeability

Preparation of the blend chitosan (CHI) membranes containing polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) derivatives was investigated. POSS derivatives such as (3-aminopropyl)isobutyl-POSS (amino-POSS), [2-(3,4-epoxycyclohexyl)ethyl]isobutyl-POSS (epoxy-POSS), and octa(tetramethylammonium)-POSS were used. The blend CHI–amino-POSS membranes were predicted to be the most porous due to having the weakest interactions between the components in the blends. The CHI–epoxy-POSS blend membranes were assumed to be more dense owing to chemical binding of the chitosan amino groups with the epoxy groups of POSS. Studies of membrane morphology and diffusion permeability support these predictions.     

Optimised mesh traversal for dynamic mesh compression

During the last decade many algorithms for compressing 3D animations represented by sequences of triangular meshes have been proposed. Most of these algorithms are lossy in their nature, i.e. the reconstructed data do not exactly match the algorithm input.Quite surprisingly, most of the existing algorithms mainly use only general compression techniques, such as entropy coding, quantisation, PCA or wavelet decomposition, while the inherent geometrical properties of the compressed surface remain unexploited. In this paper we focus on geometry specific optimisation: we extend the PCA-based dynamic mesh compression by optimising the order in which the mesh is traversed. By considering the distribution of residuals and optimising the gate selection strategy we achieve data rate reductions by 5.9–29.1% over the existing approaches in the experiments, while the error introduced by compression remains unchanged. This optimisation improves the performance of our encoder above the performance of current state of the art algorithms.     

On the solution of multi-point constraints – Application to FE analysis of reinforced concrete structures

The paper presents an efficient way of implementing general multi-point constraint conditions in a finite element solver. The proposed method of applying and processing the multi-point constraints on the primary unknown variables of finite element method is computationally efficient and memory economical, because all constrained degrees of freedoms (DOFs) are already eliminated during the assembly of the global stiffness matrix and right-hand side vectors. The adopted concept has a wide range of use, and several of its possibilities are discussed. At the end of the paper, sample analyses of reinforced concrete structures are presented that demonstrate the advantages of the developed form for modelling discrete reinforcement bars in non-linear FE calculation in engineering practice.     

Finite element modelling of reinforcement with bond

This paper presents an efficient numerical model for simulating the bond between reinforcing bars and concrete. It is based on the one-dimensional geometry of reinforcing bars, and it considers interface surface properties. In spite of its relative simplicity, it allows the application of the same physical models as in the case of a full surface interface. An arbitrary bond-slip relationship can be implemented within the model. Four sample analyses are presented: reinforcement bar pull-out experiment, an example of a beam collapsing due to shear failure, an analysis of the shear strength of pre-stressed hollow core slabs and an assessment of serviceability of a pre-stressed concrete slab in the newly built ice hockey arena in Prague.     

Hydrogenation of 2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene and cis-2-heptene on palladium black modified by lead,thallium and cadmium

The competitive hydrogenation of 2,5-dimethyl-2,4-hexadiene and cis-2-heptene catalysed by palladium black modified by lead, thallium and cadmium to various degrees of surface coverage, was investigated. An electrochemical method was used to determine the amounts of hydrogen dissolved and adsorbed on the catalyst. The effect of ad-atoms of lead, thallium and cadmium on the kinetics of the competitive hydrogenation is discussed in terms of measured values of the reaction selectivity.     

Effective diffusivities of gases in a reconstructed porous body

Two models of a porous body, a 3D replica obtained by stochastic reconstruction and a random pore network, were evaluated with reference to the effective diffusivities of gases. Stochastic reconstruction was applied to statistical information extracted from images of 2D cuts through the porous medium. The pore network was derived in such a way that the total porosity, pore-size function, mean coordination number and mercury intrusion curve were all in good agreement with the experimental data. The simulator used to model steady diffusion flow in the pore network slightly overestimated effective diffusivity, while direct calculation of effective diffusivity, by using random-walk simulation in the 3D replica, delivered a value that was lower than its experimental counterpart. However, both deviations were within tolerable limits.